Background
Aaron S. French was born in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, in 1823. The son of Philo and Mary (McIntyre) French, he was a descendant of early colonial stock.
Aaron S. French was born in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, in 1823. The son of Philo and Mary (McIntyre) French, he was a descendant of early colonial stock.
French attended school until he was twelve years old, after which he learned blacksmithing a trade which then embraced working with metals and fashioning and repairing wheels, tools, springs, and other mechanical devices.
At twenty, anxious to continue his education, he attended for a year the Archie McGregor Academy in Wadsworth, Ohio.
By the time he was twenty, French had held various jobs in different parts of the country. For two years, he had worked for the Ohio Stage Company at Cleveland, Ohio, then, after a year in the employ of the Gayoso House in Memphis, Terminal, he had become a western agent of the American Fur Company.
In 1844, he went to St. Louis, but left in 1845 to work for Peter Young, a wagon-builder, at Carlyle, Clinton County, 111. Becoming very ill, he was brought back to Ohio by his brother and was a semi-invalid during the four years which followed.
After his return to active life, he was employed in railroad blacksmith shops. In 1853, he was with the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad in Cleveland and later was placed in charge of a similar shop of the same railroad at Wellsville, Ohio. Then, turning west again, he went to Racine, Wisconsin, as superintendent of the blacksmithing of the Racine & Mississippi Railroad.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he was among the first to volunteer but failed to pass the physical tests. He had made such a reputation for courage and fair-dealing during his short stay in Racine, however, that he was elected sheriff of the county.
This position he resigned to move in 1862 to Pittsburgh, where he entered a partnership with Calvin Wells for the manufacture of the first steel springs for railroad cars. At first, he employed eight or ten workmen and limited his output to elliptic springs under the Hazen patents, but the business grew rapidly, and within thirty years the force had increased to three hundred men.
French died in 1902, on the day following his seventy-ninth birthday. Shortly before his death, his business had merged with the Railway Steel Spring Company of Pittsburgh.
Personally, French was modest and unassuming and shunned publicity. He carried on his philanthropic work so quietly that the full extent of his benefactions cannot be ascertained, though he is known to have made generous gifts to the Georgia School of Technology.
French was twice married. His first wife was Euphrasia Terrill of Liverpool, Medina County, Ohio, whom he married in 1848. After her death in 1871, he was married to Caroline B. Skeer.